Tomorrow marks my 37th birthday. Believe it or not, Ripley. That photo over there can be a bit deceiving, can't it?
At 37, I may officially qualify as pushing 40. At 27, I didn't ever feel as if I was pushing 30, and at 17, it seemed like years until I could drink (legally, that is). But 37? That's different. Like dogs, getting older accelerates as we age, which means I'll be pushing 50 the day after my 43rd birthday.
Friends have attempted to console me.
"Forty is the new 30," they tell me, but they are appropriately vague when asked to explain what that means. As far as I can tell, it means that society is more accepting of late bloomers. Whereas a generation ago people were expected to have their lives figured out personally and professionally, today we have a longer stretch of time to figure all of that out.
Hmmm . sounds appealing.
But doesn't this just give us license to act immaturely later in life? Owen Wilson, Vince Vaughn and Adam Sandler, after all, have built their careers playing irresponsible man-boys behaving badly on-screen. And speaking of actors, the media were quick to forgive current California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's alleged sexual harassment when he was in his mid-30s, calling it so-called youthful indiscretion. Our commander-in-chief got a similar pass after reports surfaced of a DUI when he was in his mid-30s.
Hardly the kind of company I want to be keeping.
Regardless, birthdays happen and are, inevitably, bittersweet milestones. Why is that? It might be because American culture is schizophrenic when it comes to age.
We seem all too eager to have young people mature quickly and reward their accomplishments with celebrity and wealth. Miley Cyrus is a case in point. Cyrus stars in the popular Disney Channel show Hannah Montana and has already had a No. 1 album. She's 13. (I don't recall exactly what I was doing at 13, but I know I wasn't in the recording studio- - what about you?) Cyrus' career makes former child stars like Macaulay Culkin and the Olsen twins look ready for the retirement village.
They will find plenty of vacancies there, because on the other side of that schizoid view of age are those who should be slowing down, but defiantly refuse to do so, gracefully or otherwise.
Case in point No. 2: Sylvester Stallone. As boxer Rocky Balboa in the forthcoming movie of the same name, Stallone climbs back into the ring to contend against a much younger champion. Stallone, in real life as well as in his upcoming feature, turned 60 this summer. (What do you think the odds are that Rocky wins this bout?)
Perhaps Sly, like many in his generation, does not want us to forget that age is a state of mind as well as a physiological reality. Baby boomers do seem to enjoy reminding the rest of us that they can still do all they could and more than when they were younger. But at a certain point, we all need to grow up and start acting our age, preferably at a happy medium between the overvalued notions of youth and the wanting-to-stay-young-forever mentality. These extremes are far too common and not all that healthy.
Some have begun to warm up to this idea. In the world of celebrity, folks like Susan Sarandon and Jamie Lee Curtis have begun speaking out about over-idealized images of youth and beauty. Rejecting Stallone's approach, they have openly embraced their ages, and have initiated discussions about opportunities for actors and actresses that appropriately reflect their ages as well as their appearances. Curtis famously had her picture taken sans makeup and hair-styling and insisted on their publication without computer enhancements.
Birthdays are important milestones. They are an opportunity for us to look in the mirror and assess what's looking back at us. That picture either will drive us to suck back a fifth of Jack Daniels through a straw in the corner of a dark room with a paper bag over our head, while listening to Jim Morrison singing "This is the end;" or it'll bring joy from what we've become. And we can learn to appreciate the bumps along the road that have gotten us to that moment.
That sounds like a much happier birthday.
Rene Alvarez is a sixth-year History Ph.D. candidate from Chicago, Ill. His e-mail address is alvarez@dailypennsylvanian.com. Rico Suave appears on Tuesdays.
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